Three big features from M.C. Gaines' All-American Comics group were: MUTT & JEFF; MOVIE COMICS; PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE.
One tends to think of All-American as the junior publisher--with Harry Donenfeld's Detective Comics/National Comics being the big boy. But Gaines was one of the pioneers of the comic book industry and probably had a lot of connections, which allowed him to score "Mutt & Jeff"--a hugely popular comic strip (first syndicated in 1907). Getting the rights to publish the strip in its own comic book must have been a major coup. And it continued to be published from 1939 through 1958 (ending at issue 103). But that wasn't the end of MUTT & JEFF--just the end of the National Comics license. Dell next picked it up (issues 104 - 115) and then Harvey Comics (issues 116 - 148) ending in 1965.
MOVIE COMICS only lasted for six issues in 1939, but it was an innovative idea which pointed the direction that comics would continue to follow, adapting motion pictures (and later television shows). This one used stills from the movies which were then air-brushed and corrected by Jack Adler. He was a genius at photography and production and would continue to work for D.C., long after All-American was absorbed into the company, until he retired in 1981. An unsung hero of the comic book industry. Some of the movies adapted in MOVIE COMICS were GUNGA DIN; SON OF FRANKENSTEIN; STAGECOACH; Gene Autry's MEXICALI ROSE; FOUR FEATHERS; THE OREGON TRAIL; CAPTAIN FURY; THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.
Beginning in 1942, Gaines published PICTURE STORIES FROM THE BIBLE, another innovative idea that would have a long life in comic books. The first four issues of "Old Testament" stories were collected in a single volume. Followed by two "New Testament" issues that also got a collected edition. Individual stories were also packaged as colour inserts carried in newspapers. When Gaines sold his share of All-American to National (D.C.), he retained ownership of the Bible stories and published those again when he began his new company, Educational Comics, also known as Entertaining Comics or E.C.